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In Belgium, in 1984 a bizarre operation occurred around Vielsalm in the Ardennes region.

A squad of US Marines were parachuted into Belgium, and met by a member of the Belgian military intelligence.

They hid for a fortnight before attacking the police station of Vielsalm, in a so-called Oesling exercise, killing a Belgian officer. One marine was injured during the operation, losing an eye.Initially the attack was passed off as terrorism, but was later proven to be the work of the American and Belgian military - as confirmed by the Senate investigations of 1991.Other attacks occured, where, as was the case in Vielsalm, arms and ammunition were taken. Arms that found their way subsequently to extremist groups.

One central question in the Belgian Senate investigation into the stay-behind network was whether it had been involved in the so-calledBrabant Massacresof the 1980s.

These were a group of attacks that occured in the area around Brussels called Brabant over a period of two years. Jewellers, restaurants, and in a number of cases supermarkets were attacked by a gang of heavily armed and ruthless men.

In all the attacks very small amounts of money were taken, while "at the same time massive brutality and professionalism was employed" [NATO's Secret Armies pg 139].

For example, on November 9th 1985 on a busy Saturday, three armed hooded men entered a supermarket and started shooting. Eight people were killed, some while trying to escape.

The money taken from the raid amounted to a couple of thousand pounds, and was found dumped in a canal in an unopened sack...

An official report published on the Brabant Massacres in 1990, before the discovery of the secret army network, had concluded that the killers had official links:

“According to the report, the killers were members or former members of the security forces – extreme right-wingers who enjoyed high-level protection and were preparing a right-wing coup” [NATO’s Secret Armies, pg 145]